Cast Conversation for ‘The Crown’ | Conversations at the SAG-AFTRA Foundation

you know I really struggled with doing five seasons of the affair and the wire um you know those two shows the affair and wire I had to sign for six years before I auditioned and and and I hope those days are over I don't know if they are but they were pretty brutal for actors and that's what I one of the things one of the many things I really enjoyed about the the crown was that you it was a very intense experience for a finite amount of time that you could you could you know dedicate yourself to and um Don when you get to my age nobody asks you to sign a six-year contract I want to begin by asking you all how and where you consumed the final episode or episodes of the crown did you watch them together were you giving them all beforehand did you watch them when they came on Netflix was it with a group Jonathan how did you do it um I watched it on Netflix yeah with my wife yeah on the day did you binge my hands yeah what' you think um well it was the final episode was an episode that I really enjoyed uh doing um there was some lovely things in the uh in the cathedral and a very nice final scene and I thought it was very appropriate the way we ended it um talking about about our deaths and talking about the the horrors to come where and we wouldn't be at all worried about it because we'd be under the stone in the cathedral um and it was I actually found it very uh I got a tiny little bit emotional um uh saying goodbye to Elder saying say one for me say a prayer for me and then I walked off and I left to uh uh to have the screen by herself and Dominic will tell you that it leaving someone to have the screen by themselves is is not something I enjoy very much how charitable of you to do it in this one case yeah yeah Leslie what about you uh well Princess Margaret died in episode 8 which was um was a glorious episode for myself and Elda and we happened to share the same agent so Netflix screened it for us um privately with just the two of us and our our agent and we were we were blubbing all of us so um that that was how I saw that and then of course I had no idea about episodes nine and 10 so I watched those you know through through NE Netflix and I thought the final episode was just you know so wonderfully moving especially that last little chapter with seeing Elda walk up the ey and it was wonderful yeah but it was uh it was um it was it was great to see that that episode with jus eldra and I because we're we're close anyway we're friends and um it was quite an important and um you know special episode for for the two of us anyway has Michel Le seen it probably he you know although I haven't heard from him he hasn't said anything Elizabeth how about you I watched it in my house on my couch and I got to really because of course I'm not in anything past episode four so I sort of got to watch it uh with just total freedom and joy because I didn't have to worry about myself popping up and potentially scenes and when you watch things that you're in I don't know about you guys but it really especially obviously the first time you see it but it really makes my heart race like I feel pretty sick super adrenally like overcharged so so I did I was just I had a very relaxing lovely luxurious time watching all the work that I didn't have anything to do with you know and the scripts but in a way I'd almost forgotten because I I didn't have to refresh my memory so I'd read 1 to 10 like when would that have been that would have been the year before like you know is that right the year before I it was all blurring but anyway so so when I watched it I also had the added Delight of sort of getting to almost watch it new because I wasn't even in reading the read through of 5 to 10 except that I popped in to and I got the great pleasure of listening to Leslie's episode eight read in a read through I listened to seven and eight because in episode seven I popped up and said I think my line was big issue for sale which if I remember correctly Dom you found particularly enjoyable because I had one line the whole read through but then I got I got to listen to seven and eight read through which yeah so I watched it of like just fresh and really thought it was extremely beautiful work nothing Dominic what about you uh I watched it in over in two sessions with uh with couple of my I think I think yeah my daughters and uh well actually all my kids we all watched it um over two nights and uh they were big fans of the show my kids were big fans of the show um before I was in it and and less so once I joined it but um they we all we all um we all cried at the end actually we we loved it it was uh yeah it was it was very uh satisfying and and um yeah the problem that Elizabeth was saying of of watching yourself was um is is a problem I have as well and but it was it was okay because um because it ended so beautifully with uh with Jonathan and the three queens I loved it it was amazing and for the record did you in fact take pleasure out of the fact that Elizabeth only had one line in that episode of course I love that especially big selling a big issue Elizabeth there was so much attention scrutiny placed on your performance in season five when you debuted as Diana and it it was so from where I stand overwhelmingly positive and lovely and so many people just appreciating what you brought to this performance I don't know the timing of when that season came out and then when you were filming this the final episodes that you did if it was after it had already come out and you saw and sense people's appreciation for what you were doing did that give you a sense of added confidence or Freedom as you were filming the last few episodes um yes I'd be lying if I said it it wasn't a little bit helpful I I um in fact funny Leslie and I were talking about this just today um and I was saying that when I Shot season five I had so little time with the rest of the cast and so I mean I had time with dom we had we had that big scene together and then a few little bits but um I felt a little bit like I was in a bit of a sort of Diana vacuum like I W I didn't really have a lot of um you know actors as are kind of when they're beautiful people like this cast and also wonderful at their own at their jobs and they sort of can be a bit of a mirror for you so sometimes even if you think you don't know if it's going okay you can judge it off your scene Partners or your fellow car sort of I didn't really you know I had so many people to work with but this is a really rambling way of saying I didn't actually know if it was very good at all and I was very very nervous um and I felt like we were all taking big risks but I was very I could see everyone else was wonderful but I didn't really know and um so when that when the thing had come out already that was a huge relief because it sort of like it what just was like a big wave people watched it it seemed like people liked it and in a way it was like okay that's over and done with and now you get like a second shot at doing that and you can get a little bit of that noise out of your head and just actually enjoy it a lot more which I did did it also that feeling of being um outside did that play into your performance though because you were an outside and I think so yeah whenever I laughing and enjoying each other and then I had to go and shoot a scene I'm sure that made my acting a little bit better yeah I felt very lonesome all the time and everyone kept saying isn't that good for the scene and I thought yeah that I need to feel it in real life um so yeah I miss I guess it I guess it all work maybe that was just the way it was supposed to happen and I certainly didn't sort of fight it also we were shooting in Co and my own for a lot of you know so I just going I was playing a person living in an apartment by themselves and now it's going into my apartment by myself like was kind of weird time but um yeah I guess it did help definitely helped I didn't read any of them but I had someone else do it for me a friend and I said just do like skim off the top and like tell me like I was like and she sort of went that one's fine that one's fine that's enough that's fine okay that's all I need to know as they say TLD drr too long didn't read so you get someone to summarize it for you I like that U Dominic amongst all of the fascinating projects that you've been a part of on every possible medium you've been a part of what I would consider these three iconic television series The Wire the affair which is a huge personal favorite of mine and now the crown obviously the crown was a shorter amount of time fewer episodes for you compared to the other two but now that there's been some distance between filming the crown and now how does this experience maybe compare or contrast to when you think back to the other two well I the the the the length of of of of your sentence is was is very significant I I I think um you know I really struggled with doing five seasons of the affair and the wire um I you know I I sort of always feel like I got into acting because it's a it's an you have an intense experience for a finite amount of time and when it goes on for Five Seasons it gets it's doesn't seem it seems infinite and um so this was the perfect amount of time really as I wanted it to be to be more I of the crown because it was it was so enjoyable but um but I I think that's partly why it was so successful is that format of changing casts every two seasons was was was very actor friendly um and uh I yeah I you know I think there's there's very few shows really that can sustain Beyond a couple of Seasons um and the wire is certainly one and and probably they're fair to but but um I I I I think it's a you know those two shows the fair and why I had to sign for six years before I auditioned and and and I hope those days are over I don't know if they are but they were pretty brutal for actors and that's what I one of the things one of the many things I really enjoyed about the the crown was that you it was a very intense experience for a finite amount of time that you could you could you know dedicate yourself to and um and uh you know I loved it I got to be at home and I got to be um with these great Heroes of mine and uh there there was there was no drawbacks at all really that's great Leslie this is a question that um you know when you when you Dom when you get to my age nobody asks you to sign a six-year contract God awful oh my God I hope you're kidding um Leslie I feel comfortable asking you this question because we've come out the other side and your performance as Margaret is just so beautiful and has been so well received when you were given this potential opportunity and it involved as it does for all of you following in the footsteps of these tremendous performers in your case Vanessa and Helena was that a selling point to doing it or was that something that could have warded you off doing it a definitely a selling point because they were they were part of this whole Splendid package you know it there they were doing these extraordinary performances as was everyone I mean I remember watching series one and two without any knowledge that I was going to be in it eventually um and then watching three and four knowing that I was going to be in it so I went back to the beginning and watched it all but it's the it's the whole cocktail really I mean you've I I've never seen production value like that and I've never witnessed it on set I mean it is it is extraordinary you do feel that every single person on the set Runners included is the best at their job the detail the the I mean costume hair and makeup just for a start is quite phenomenal and then you put in props and the sets and it's yeah it so the whole the whole thing was was a selling point but you know Vanessa Kirby was kind of um I mean I I knew her work before playing Princess Margaret but it really kind of propelled her and quite right what a performance and and Helena's work I obviously I've just been watching her for decades and we know each other a little bit and so of course they were selling points because they they were so good but you you can't um try and copy that because that's the very unique thing about this series in that it's uh you know three separate casts over this period of time you have to do your version of your character you know I'm nobody ever suggested to me that I needed to emulate or copy or anything because I'm playing Margaret at a time in her life when the things she's going through are very TP or not very typical but a more typical of a woman of that age with declining health and declining Beauty um whereas they were playing a woman you know that same woman at such different times of her life um so yeah I think you I I felt that I was fed and nourished and enthralled by them but I didn't feel in any way that I had to um copy that I could do my own version of her Jonathan obviously for people who aren't aware of you and Amela Stanton have a a history you made a film together 30 years ago that I now want to go back and watch deadly advice with Jane horx I mean come on how that's going to be fantastic I can't believe I missed it but go look at it as well I don't remember it a long time ago right but what what did the fact that you you have known her for many years add to the equation particularly because as you've all alluded to you have such a beautiful moment particularly at you know in the last episode yeah well yes I I've known the the performance I do remember we did uh Uncle van on stage together um and uh yeah we she was in Cranford and various other things and i' I've seen her over the years and admired her as a as an actor over the years and I think um because of life's experience for both of us when we came to uh play philli and Elizabeth um partly because the scripts are so good but we there was very little we had to talk about it was uh you know we'd absorbed so much of the characters over the you know we were playing the characters I was especially uh Phillip at my age and his age um and you know the idea that we we were in a long uh marriage um both IM melder and I have been in Long relationships we did we know what that's like we didn't have to talk about it um and uh no it was it was beautiful and um there were occasionally moments when uh uh there was some couple really good scenes we had together one where I announced to her that I was taking a companion in season five um and that was uh we were both kind of quietly excited about it because it was the most theatrical scene that we had together and um it just felt very nice that we could do it together I enjoyed working with her a lot and um yeah like Leslie was saying about um I think if I'd been the second Phillip I'd have been worried you know comparisons um as I was the third it was like this was the format it was definitely your version I know I didn't look anything like him I don't sound like him I don't share the same political beliefs but um it gives you a lot of confidence that the other actors have played the role before and you weren't supposed to be following them in any way yeah Elizabeth it's just so interesting that we spend so much time with Diana on what ends up being the final evening of her life of course as you're not playing it knowing that but it gives those scenes and that whole episode so much power as a viewer how was it for you on the days of doing that particular night the scenes that take place in that night did you have a different way of preparing for that episode and that sequence um no I didn't do sort of anything different to how I would usually do acting but I think when I look back I think what K and I were doing and I was so grateful to have such a consistent scene partner through season six and that you should is such a beautiful human being and such a wonderfully generous and very supportive seem partner emotionally and just technically too just and uh so I think what we did Without Really Ever talking about this because we sort of like carried the knowledge like we carried the stories in our bodies and I think they were informing choices we are making in terms of uh Landing certain there are there are I mean of course like there are moments in scenes where a lot of that episode it seemed to me was Peter uh just sort of so many layers I find kind of tricky to talk about but you know we understand that there's this impending tragedy that's happening in the story and so every decision that's made by the characters in the SC in the scenes it's you you watch the characters go in One Direction and the audience sort of rushes at that decision with all their information that they already have about um you know the facts or their imagination or so it's almost like we have to leave room for that huge amount of memory that is coming at the scenes that audience will have we had to so when we sort of turn right it's important that we understand we we somehow allude to what the left turn meant that we never took I don't know if that makes any sense but I don't and I don't really know how we did that apart from the fact that I know we carried the story in our bodies and we just played the scenes on top of it very simp as simply as we could I think that's kind of how we did it so actually it was a really really kind of amazing acting challenge because there is so much information happening in those scenes and it it is moving towards a certain fixed point on the story map but my way of working through it was just to be probably the most sort of present time I've ever been in scenes as an actor so I was just really and sometimes people have said to me how was it playing the paparazzi scene was it really harrowing and did the answer is that it wasn't you know it was because it's awful it's hor it's horrible to have you know being in a tra car and people banging on the windows and you know the stunt guys in it's a stunt that you paragraph but all I sort of always always did was just play DI trying to get to the phone Diana missing the you know and then when I finally would get to the phone and I would finally get to have the scene or the conversation was always just a huge relief for just being in that long scene with carlot in the Ritz that Peter wrote so many layers into that dialogue that it moves in so many ways that scene but um I just remember being very like minute to minute as as the actor inside of it and so when the door opens and someone says are we going nowhere staying no we go actually you know I you just bounce off that in a minute to minute or a second to Second way yeah so yeah it was a really kind of unique acting Challenge and um I was really glad that I had such a wonderful part to so like have very technical chats about it Dominic you say about Elizabeth performance because uh it was in in life uh Diana was the first person for for me and millions of others that we first connected to the royal family and everything that Elizabeth did um was so honest and truthful to what Diana was like at that time and when they um we were filming in Scotland and they showed us in the hotel uh a rough cut of the of the leading up to the death and um it took me back to where I was when I heard of it and and most of us in that audience the tech the crew of the technicians actors were inconsolable watching that and that um you know that came from Elizabeth's honesty in that performance it was quite remarkable Dominic when I interviewed you all for season five I specifically asked you about the scene where we see Charles reacting to Diana's television interview and I remember asking you what you were actually physically re acting to on the day because I found your performance so impressive there similarly your reaction to in the morg to seeing the body is so powerful and so emotional I I don't know if you were given a choice as to what you as an actor would be reacting to because we don't see it as an audience did you have a choice did you request for there something to be there or did would that not have been helpful to you was it just you to conjure it in your mind I I can't Elizabeth were you there were you you were there weren't you I was looking at you I was just very quietly there and we never made eye contact or obviously and you would you would come in and out of the room yeah know Elizabeth was there so it was um so it was easy it was just um you know it was re I mean amazing work I couldn't I could only hear you and you absolutely broke my heart every day was out it was so beautiful I mean I I didn't see your face but I knew what it was doing um yeah no but it was so just we we did it I think chronologically and just walking I remember walking into the hospital and seeing all those I think we were just outside London it wasn't Paris or anything but seeing all the doctors there and it was just and like Jonathan said remembering that day when it happened and but everyone's faces that not on camera and not during the during the take everyone's faces was so everyone you could tell I was looking at some doctors before you before I went into the room and he had to go into this hospital room and there was Elizabeth lying on a on the on a bed um uh and no acting required I mean it was just so it was so moving and and um and awful you know just uh it I don't I've never done anything where I suppose I had that much uh personal memory of a of a time uh um and also that much uh history with with Elizabeth as as an actor I suppose just you know inevitably you you see your friend there sort of as as a COR in some way um so uh so yeah I think I yeah I think I think it was that was that was not a not a difficult scene to do really and and we' done that long scene in in season five where uh where we make an omelet for three days and um so I Fel we we got there was a real raor and and I felt I had a real raor with Elizabeth corpse and and what a beautiful corpse it was no I I don't I don't mean to be I do mean to be flippant but um uh yes I I I don't really know what to say I can't remember much about it I think it was so it was so overwhelming at the time and and just the walk into that hospital and to see everyone's faces the doctors they were real doctors I think and there was there was extras and um supporting USS and stuff but everyone's face just told the story of what they remembered and and and it was so easy to connect with that and and then um Christian shot it so well that I went in the room and I think we started in closeup and and there was just no it was you know it was it was a dodle to act because of because of the weight of that experience that we'd all had and and just imagining the horror of of um of what they went through at the time and and the guilt the feelings of guilt and of and of of horror um it's such a powerful there were such powerful events that inevitably the scenes were were powerful well not inevitably they were they were they were beautifully written and and the moments were well Chosen and um uh I don't know if it actually happened I don't know if Peter knew that um I don't know if that's what actually happened when Charles saw uh identified the body of Diana but um but it seemed to ring very true to me and and uh uh it was an extraordinary scene to do Leslie how about for you when we see Margaret after she's been through her stroke and and playing playing that and obviously that must have required you know some kind of I don't know if it was a a prosthetic or or what all was involved there but that must have been amongst the more challenging things that you were asked to do yes but you know it was it was it was um great and and Peter wrote that episode with Mariel Shabani Clair and I think that it it was I think imeld and I were both delighted with it because um it was a such a personal story about two sisters and their the lives that they'd had and you know a a whole episode really about these two sisters saying goodbye you know not not so much about a queen and a princess just and they loved each other so profoundly and you know they they spoke most days and they they were so different but they were Incredibly Close and the love was you know strong but obviously in the grand scheme of a one-h hour episode you you and that you've got to do three strokes and she actually had those Strokes over period of two years almost um we had to sort of condense it all so obviously the three Strokes needed to get progressively worse so so yeah no I I went and met some stroke victims and um because you just feel you need to do that just you know you need to do that right um and and then you know working with with the hair makeup team and on how how we could do it I mean we mostly did it we mostly did it without anything um but we did have a prothetic ankle because we wanted to do that we did that sort of iconic image of her in the wheelchair when she had the dark sunglasses that went all the way around and as she said I I didn't want men to look at me I didn't want men to see me so she covered her herself up so we had a prosthetic ankle and um and a a little bit of you know the faceing of stroke classically collapses so we had a little bit of for the third stroke the uh something pulling the eye down a tiny bit and a little bit of something over my teeth here um and um yeah we save we saved it for the last one really um but you you just you know you want to get it you want to get it right right because a lot of people have strokes and you you don't want to feel anyone's watching it and just thinking oh well that's ridiculous nobody's ever like that when they've had a stroke so there's a but honestly that's when the crown is just brilliant because everyone was there to help and you've also got the Fantastic Voice coaches that we had consistently throughout the shoot um that were there to help you with all things um audible really so it was yeah it was terrific but very special for emder and I because like with Jonathan Elder and I are old old friends we you know we're the pixes in Maleficent for God's sake I mean we know each [Music] other so so you know it was just again what Jonathan was saying stuff you don't need to talk about you know we didn't need to discuss well they're quite close aren't they so shall we do the she's just you're just there with it because it's there you're it's it's ingrained it's in your bones because you got this gorgeous relationship with this person already uh I've got time for one more question Jonathan I want to give you the last word here here we are talking to you and as your cast members have been talking about uh you are a double Emmy nominee this year because you were nominated not only for the crown but also do we have to talk about that and I just love this period that you're in in your career you had your first Oscar nomination for the two popes a few years ago you're in the sixth decade of your career and you've become you know you've doubled the amount of Emmy nominations that you had you had two before now you've got four what does this period in your life and in your career mean to you um I'm just having a great time I really am um and as long as I can keep doing it and keep enjoying it it it'll be fun and keep learning the lines um no it's uh it's great I always thought I'd um I would retire when I was 60 because I didn't want to be um I didn't want to be the old man on the set who was patronized by the younger people um I know in my time I've had to go up to ads and directors and say about an old director you do realize who that is and he was once at the top and uh be kind to him so I don't want to be that person um I'll get out before that happens but no I'm having a wonderful time and um working with great actors and uh in for balance I praised Elizabeth performance I've got to praise Dominic and I especially have to praise Leslie um her this the whole episode where she had the stroke was so accurate and so moving uh wonderful wonderful thanks lesie thank you you thanks Jonathan well I for one am thrilled that the entire television Academy has taken notice of all four of you and all 18 of the nominations for the final season of the crown I'm going to miss this show I'm going to miss talking to all of you but it's been an absolute pleasure so Jonathan price Leslie Manville Dominic West Elizabeth dicki thank you to you all and many many congratulations and thanks to you all for watching thank you thanks day okay [Music]